There has been plenty of progress on the hull work for the underwater part. The grinding and sanding is all done. The thru-hull and transducer have been replaced; the hole for the oldest of the transducers is fiberglassed closed; the bolts in the support brackets have been checked (and one replaced) and re-sealed. Some blisters were found (less than 10) and patched – this was “not supposed” to happen since we had the whole outer layer of glass replaced in San Carlos, Mexico six years ago, but 10 blisters is better than 1000. The prop shaft is removed and the coupler, shaft and prop are off to the shop for checking, adjusting and aligning. The prop is showing serious signs of electrolysis “burn”; since we are quite reliable about keeping fresh zinc anodes on the prop shaft, I’m not quite sure how that happened. I suspect either the estero at Bahia del Sol in El Salvador, or (less likely) the estero at Bahia Caraquez in Ecuador.

The setback yesterday was the discovery of lots of gelcoat deterioration just above the waterline, especially at the bow where there had been “gunk” growing and more especially at the stern. So the plan is to prep all that (and other dings as well – a couple fairly large ones) with a special “pasta”, sand smooth again, and then apply two layers of primer to the top-sides before putting on the final coats of yellow.